Music

From the day my father brought home our family’s first Sanyo ‘music centre’ when I was about 9 years old I have been fascinated with all music (probably excepting traditional jazz and country music).

I grew up as a teenager in the 1970s and was lucky to see Duran Duran when they were first starting and have gone to several Slade concerts including the New Years Eve events in Wolverhampton Civic Hall!

Playing music came later – and If Michael Moore and Nigel Linden read this they will remember us trying to make some sort of tuneful noise with Mike and I plugged into my 10-watt Park valve amp chassis and a single 12″ speaker with no cabinet. Nigel played drums and we were all squeezed into Nigel’s bedroom. The neighbours weren’t happy!

I satisfied myself with just listening for many years but came back to playing the guitar in my 20s (thanks Spod) but with no ambition to share this with anyone – thank goodness for home-recording equipment.

So, my tastes are a bit eclectic – I have been introduced over the years to a vast range of music (thanks Pete Bodnar) which has been great. Of course not all of it is to everyone’s taste and I have seen and heard some really weird stuff (Can in the ’70s for example – or Amon Duul….)

Here are a few of my favourite albums:

John Martyn remains my all-time favourite and he crossed the styles from folk to blues to rock and back again. An acquired taste, but he captivated me in ’75 and I have all of his albums. Give him a listen – try the classic album Solid Air or the more recent On the Cobbles or even Glasgow Walker. John died aged 60 in Januray 2009 – a devastating loss to music.

For something jazzier – try EST (Esbjorn Svenson Trio). Sadly another untimely early death (this time in 2008 whilst scuba diving) Esbjorn was a master jazz pianist and modern jazz writer.

All of the albums need a little listening so don’t judge until you have attuned to them after 4 or 5 plays – but try From Gagarin’s Point of View as a starter or Seven Days of Falling. Beautiful music.

Also Nitin Sawhney is brilliant and I am a big fan. There are numerous other Jazz and Funk/Soul alternatives but I don’t have the space here!

Then there’s a whole host of others – Marc Cohn (he wrote Walking in Memphis and other well-known songs made hits by others), Andy Sheppard (modern jazz saxophonist par excellence), Alan Parsons (rock), Michael Hill (New York Blues), Bill Perry (Blues) – there are loads of others. I will try to post some more in another section of this web site.